I am not a big fan of soft magic. It is lazy.

Is something terrible about in way, how Americans lose abillity to understanding American prose. What you are describing is not Sword and Sorcrerry, but another generic, stupid and mindless Grim-Dark-Low-Fantasy. The characters in Sword & Sorcerry are, of course, heroic. After all, a synonym for the genre name was "Heroic Fantasy". They are not fighting for survival or "simply food". This is not Dungeons and Dragons on 0 levels. They are adventurers looking for a thrill. Of course they are special and have special abilitis: Herculean strength, abnormal reflex, iron will and amazing luck. Diffrence is they rarelly have supernatural powers. They are heroes, not super-heroes. The second difference is that they exist in the world of Lutheran-Protestant-Enlightenment era ethics, when everyone is sinfull. Not in not Calvinist-Roussean like most american leftists and conservatists of modern era. Where everyone ist good, with expection of some madmans. That's the reason why Lin Carter created name "Heroic Fantasy". Fantasies (in in the Freud sesne) about rejection of civilisation, being Alpha Male, running half naked, killing others Alphas and banging sinful womanes.

It’s happening because hard magic systems keep breaking their own rules so at the end of the day it was soft magic all along

Soft magic works best when you aren't writing stories about magic users. Though hard magic sucks all the fun of that for me too, this is why I prefer a layered magic system with a base of soft magic, where harder (though preferably not to the point of a hard science) magic is employed by the magic user. Star Wars used to do this pretty well, not so much anymore. Magic should always be more art than science.

If anyone wants to read a novel or watch a series based on hard magic I suggest The Magicians.

Bloodborne has to be one of the most Depressing Dark Fantasy worlds in video game history.

My favourite is definitely The Witcher. I love character-driven stories, and The Witcher is all about that. Plus, one of the things that sets it apart for me is that it's never overly dark. Yeah - the world of The Witcher can be cruel, harsh, raw, and unfair, where it's often about survival, but there's also a lot of positive and fun stuff in it, and overall it just feels like real life.

I don't like your definition of Soft and Hard magic cause a Master Wizard can use high and low level spells. But using your terms. Soft magic is seen more in live action due to it being easier on the budget. If they could do hard magic they would, for all the reasons you said. Stories that use hard magic weakness are pacing. That would cover the build up you said hard magic lacks when compared to soft magic. Stories that use hard magic don't fully explore the many uses of Hard magic or the type of system it uses. Using your terms Sword Art Online is using hard magic. While Dot Hack sign is using soft magic. 😂

Eh, "magic" is often just fantasy physics. Traditionally, magic was supernatural (which happens to be the actual definition of magic). But fantasy novels, especially, have turned magic into physics, which makes magic not really magical.

I don't believe in the distinction between soft magic and hard magic. I feel like it's coming from a wrong understanding of science applied to fiction, where it claims to make a "scientific" explanation of how the magic works, when even science as we do it in our world is really just "as far as we can explain...". This often means that there's not only "this is how magic works" inside the story, but also word of god that yes, this is actually what happens on a fundamental level in the world's physics. And that, fundamentally, makes magic lose its sense of wonder. But when you look again at the science of our world, and how ideas evolved, they are mostly "if...then" observations that are explained with an idea of how things we cannot see are working under the hood, but that's more often than not an educated guess, and it's replaced by the next, better guess. This is often missing from hard magic systems, it's just "this is how it works and has always worked", it's not an evolving body of ideas, it's not a representation of the culture it stems from, it has no regard for class or intelligence of the people, etc. It just works. So as soon as there is magic in a world, people will try to explain it. Some explanations will be better than others, but most likely all of them will be flawed. When compared to our history, are we in a more animistic phase of human history, where people might understand magic as talking to the spirits inside objects, or would it be more like our modern world, where magic is explained with forces and particles? In both cases, the wizard can make the rock float, just his understanding of the situation might be different. The thing that makes "hard" magic so "boring" is that the magic is treated like we treat technology today, ubiquitous, blase, matter of fact. If the characters don't express any sense of wonder over the magic in the world, why should I as a reader feel that? And if the magic is part of the world's everyday life, that is absolutely valid. It doesn't mean ALL magic is like that as well, it can easily be that you have folk magic that people use in their everyday life, but at the same time there are far greater magical powers out there, that only a rare few can wield. When looking at Avatar, I have a hard time categorizing it as hard magic in any sense of the way. People know "if I move in this way, I can manipulate the elements", but even that isn't true for everyone, just some people. Then they don't study the bending like science, it's a lot more philosophy, martial arts, even copying animals in a lot of cases. Add to that things like the moon spirits and the Avatar himself, and you'll see that nothing is really explained as hard as it might look at first.

Got an idea for you..... military science fiction

if you set up a story just right you could get away with both. You'd have a more widely practiced and studied form of magic. And then a Dark or wild form that not so widely accepted, that some see as dangerous. It all about how you write it.

if you set up a story just right you could get away with both. You'd have a more widely practiced and studied form of magic. And then a Dark or wild form that not so widely accepted, that some see as dangerous. It all about how you write it.

if you set up a story just right you could get away with both. You'd have a more widely practiced and studied form of magic. And then a Dark or wild form that not so widely accepted, that some see as dangerous. It all about how you write it.

Don't worry what others say.. do what you like to do... it's for you and people that enjoy it.... those that are rude or purposefully misrepresenting (rather than misunderstanding) can be ignored :)

I love the system from World of Darkness Mage. Where you have the Consensus and Paradox as the big set in stone rules. Essentially, it means that if ordinary people see magic being done overtly, reality pushes back against the mage, unless the person witnessing it either believes it has some other explanation or they actually believe in magic. Thus battles between mages can be epic earth shattering events, but try to manifest fire on a crowded street and either you cant, or the mage will catch on fire and everyone will think some doofus was fooling around with their lighter and lighted their coat on fire. Unless the mage lugs around something resembling a flamethrower...

Title offers hybrid magic system. Dumbass just says “Well just use TWO magic systems!” Downvote. Do not recommend channel

I knew when I was making my magic system this was possible. Simply make an understandable magic system with immense power and SCOPE. Scope is key.

I like antiheroes of sword and sorcery as they seem more.... Human... Real historic characters seem more like characters of sword and sorcery rather than high fantasy ones. Though, personally I have some struggles on writing magic and therefore in my books magic is very low... Even for the sword and sorcery standards I think is low. Where did you find the music in the video (violin theme, heavy metal piece)???

No, give me simplicity, fantasy races are exaggerations of human aspects, no need to twist it back around.

The cosmic horror fantasy I'm cooking uses a good mix of softer and harder sorceries. An example of one of them is called grace. In the presence of demonic entities known as wraiths, magekin faithful to The Shaperate can call upon the divinity of their goddess to strike down malevolent spirits with golden light. A brawler character summons grace to wreathe his fists in a brilliant glittering gleam, while a battle nun wielding a war scythe uses grace to create a golden sear along the edge of her blade. The mechanics aren't fully explored, but grace isn't so over-the-top that it breaks the believability of the setting, nor does it require the need to be explained thoroughly. It's simply the channeling of a divine power to fight demons. There's no real system per se, but it can be applied in a variety of forms, there are limitations, and it doesn't handwave away problems. I feel like this is a good approach to a hybrid system. It's softer magic used in the place of hard magic. Another system that does require a bit more structure and explanation is witchstone, a naturally occurring arcane quartz that can harness magic or bind spirits. That definitely falls in the hard category. But then I've included eldritch sorcery and ritualistic blood magic that is 1000% on the soft side due to the sheer wonder and unpredictability of it. Magic is often an extremely corrosive and volatile force in my setting, and I wanted to portray it in various forms, both hard and soft, and some in-between. I think that's best for the type of story I'm telling. Because there are extreme horror elements, not knowing what the magic can achieve (or backfire horrendously) is what adds to the terror of it.

best of all is not to think of magic in this dichotomy at all, it is limiting and impractical

Yep the hybrids are the best!

What is your Hybrid Magic System recommendation?

Pretty good video. I would say aesthetic of your magic matters. Will Wight of the Cradle series talks about this a lot. A series that has wizards using wands and incantations is going to be different from alchemists using formations and transmutation circles for their magic. Obviously this should ultimately still serve the plot for Magic is a way to solve problems. But one should keep that in mind. Even if you want to contrast to established, known magic with the unknown magic. I’d also say that regardless of whether your magic is a hybrid, soft or hard; strive for internal consistency. If you establish your magic user having telekinesis and they can only move small objects and larger ones give them nosebleeds, maintain consistency. Don’t have them suddenly lift larger objects without an explanation in universe and have it make sense. For example, Fourth Wing’s sequel establishes the academy( SPOILER ALERT) has a solution that can cut Dragon riders from telepathically communicating with their dragons once consumed. The context was that the candidates needed to partake in survival classes as per requirements. The problem is that it is revealed this was recently created. This raises a good question: how could they do survival lessons if this stuff didn’t exist before. The author didn’t touch on this and thus created an inconsistency. That’s why have a good editor and beta readers who are stickler for details. Thus you can avoid magical errors as I just pointed out.

That Force potential was of the flesh and often passed down from parent to child is explained in the OT and also the other content released before TPM. This also does literally nothing to change the importance of spiritual focus, resolve, and serenity/passion for a being to use the Force. Moreover the development of Midis and especially Darth Plagueis‘s book where he studies them remains one of the most compelling plots in that franchise’s history.

I would add one thing. I get the feeling (but not explicit statement) from your discussion that the real difference between hard and soft magic is the degree of disclosure. In both, the author should absolutely know how each system really works. I really love your example of Rothfuss, but returning for a moment to Tolkien. Gandalf appears to be chaotic and unpredictable, but fans have laid out precise timelines of where he was at any particular moment. The god of Middle Earth was left mysterious, but presumably Tolkien had him equally mapped out and simply never told anyone. (At least I haven't heard anyone mention the reason why evil spirits were allowed to continue to sing out of harmony without suffering any immediate consequences.) The problem is that the presentation I am hearing elsewhere that soft magic systems are basically ones not thought through by the author. I love the example of Snape taking a time turner back to Riddle's days at the orphanage and solving the whole problem at the root. Thus, I would say a 'hybrid system' is the only correct way to do magic, i.e., fully thought out but only partially revealed, even by the end of the book or series. I like the concrete writing suggestions, but foreshadowing might be better defined. People generally understand it as mentioning the event/thing beforehand, like Sam's mentioning hearing of walking trees. That foreshadows Old Willow who swallows two of the hobbits, which then foreshadows the ents and really makes them scary initially. In a more obvious way, the magic skills are foreshadowed in Harry Potter through a different application, which was quite effective. To do that in writing, first think of the magic skill and imagine various ways it could be used. Then, select two, seemingly unrelated, instances and use one to foreshadow the other.

Personally I like when Hard Magic is the base story while Soft Magic running in the background. Like in Harry Potter universe there are also Ancient Magics that even modern wizard didn’t understand. Or in Trails Series they create device for people to use magic-like power but still has Real Magic as the legend and mythology. (And super advance version of Hard Magic too. So it like has 3 version of magic in that game series)

Hard magic is for gross nerds with no social skills. They are the same who obsessed about lore. They want to know the facts, every little details. They don't understand that good storytelling is about the human condition. Soft magic only becomes an issue when you put magic in the hands of the protagonist (which you shouldn't do). Stories with magic-using protagonists are for children who refuse to grow up. Instead of looking to better themselves and look for realistic solutions to their problems, they fantasize about having magical powers.

I like to think of sword and sorcery as the spaghetti westerns of fantasy.

An entire generation is rediscovering pulp era heroes and singing its praises and that makes me very happy to see. But if we have to sum up Sword and Sorcery as a genre I'll leave that to its father,Robert E Howard: "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.”

Mix both. Problem solve. 😂 Who says you can't use best of both worlds anyway? 😂 Be free! Do what you want and make it work, and also fun! 🔥

It is good when there is Hard Magic and it is hidden from audience but the author know for himself how it work what are their source and limits.

I think is because people are getting dumber, and incapable of creating hard magic systems lol

I not like this rare magic type. I want to read books about mages not fighters :)

I'm not seeing *any* evidence for the assertion in the title. I am, however seeing anectodical evidence for the opposite. For example, the top 1 story on Royal Road is Mother of Learning, featuring an extremely hard magic system. I watched the whole video for even a shred of evidence, so the only way I can repay for being mislead and baited is a dislike.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Kratos and the God Of War series. Would Kratos be classed as a Sword and Sorcery protagonist, and would his saga be classed as a Sword and Sorcery tale or, as I like to call it Dark Mythology.

What I like about S&S (typically) is that they aren't the hero in so much as they are just doing their thing... compaired to High Fantasy where the main character is the "chosen one" type thing. I also like the nature of how some of the older stories were more akin to when you tell someone about some thing you had done some time... rather than a contiguous story.

I think where High Fantasy bears resemblance to national epics like The Iliad or The Nibelungenlied, Sword and Sorcery is more along the episodic lines of Norse sagas or Beowulf. Conan and Solomon Kane always feel like there are more adventures than just what Howard wrote (which I think contributes to their continued popularity and ability for new stories to be written). What Howard had too was a feeltof verisimilitude- even though Conan takes place in a lost "Hyborian Age", you could imagine it taking places just at the edges of things going on in the Old Testament or parallel to the Epic of Gilgamesh.

I think that a combination of the two approaches is best. Even Sanderson has examples of "soft magic" within the cosmere but even if you are intimately familiar with his works, you start to realize that what you thought you knew about the systems was actually scratching the surface of something much deeper.

Sword and Sorcery is truly the Rock Anthem of Fantasy. Also fun fact, Michael Moorcock assisted Blue Oyster Cult with Veteran of the Psychic Wars and their song Black Blade is about Elric.

Personally speaking, I prefer hard magic systems. I like to make sense of the world(s) around me, and unexplained mysteries and ambiguities feel unsatisfying to me. The worst extremes of soft magic systems, at least in my opinion, are those found in horror stories, where the lack of rules and the unpredictability is by intent, to make things more frightening. Fear of the unknown / unknowable, etc. I didn't particularly care about the magic in a Song of Ice and Fire. It was there, it disrupted human plots, that's it. The only thing I found interesting about it was how magic had completely vanished, to the point where people took it for mere myth, and suddenly it's coming back. A bit like the Shadowrun backstory, with magic suddenly re-emerging in 2012, together with a new age on some old Mayan calender. Magic in Tolkien is basically irrelevant, if you ask me. What made Gandalf powerful were his age, experience and skills. Lighting the occasional pipe with magical fire was window dressing. Sure, prophesies and sometimes even miracles happen, but that's it, they happen and nothing more. Don't get me wrong, there can also be too much focus on magical systems and rules. The Black Prism series by Brent Weeks is a great example of a meticulously laid out magical system placed over a world full of inconsistencies and implausible characters. It's been years since I read it, but between unsympathetic main characters making one questionable decision after another and flaws in the lore (how the F would an extremely poor kid in a pre-industrial society end up obese?!), at some point I just put it away and never finished the whole mess. *** One thing, though: The best Story about magic published in the last few years, without a doubt, is the manga/anime Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. It came out just about a year ago, and I think it should have been addresses in this video. Sure, you can't know every little thing that comes out, ever, but it was massively hyped, won several awards, etc.

The Elric art, who's the artist? 🙏

My favorite type of fantasy.

If you liked Blackest Night and the Sinestro War storylines, the last year or so of Green Lantern would probably be to your liking.

Your English is great. Enjoying your content, man. Thanks.

I like the core concepts of sword and sorcery (the pulpy/campy writing of it), but rarely find the execution all that appealing. The episodic nature is such a turn-off. I know some ppl love that each story is relatively contained and there's not much bleeding over between tales beyond the characters or setting, but I prefer the grand scale of over-arching narratives that go into epic fantasy series. I want deeper themes and character arcs that simply can't be explored in a single narrative. I want the world-ending stakes. I want the sprawling POV's. Unfortunately sword and sorcery just doesn't scratch that itch. That's not to say they can't be written well or have good character work. I'm just looking for more.

The forgot the first sword and sorcerer hero Kull of Atlantis... By Frank Howard...

My favorite genre.

Another thing Sword and Sorcory dose well too is that while your hero like Conan might be rough around the edges. But he like most protagonists in these stories has a moral compess of a sort. His honastly is very central to me. He speaks his mind and you know where you stand with him, he is honest, brutally honest and in his world that is great contrast to his foes. Scheming wizards, royalty and "civilized" men.